


surely

by jesterthepink



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [1]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: F/M, I could've just dumped it on tumblr but I don't like having fics there, and nile centric, ish, it's very short so there's not much to say about it, tbh this is pre relationship nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesterthepink/pseuds/jesterthepink
Summary: A ficlet inspired loosely by this line: "touched your hand but nothing more" from Counting Paths by Matthew and the Atlas.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman
Series: Tumblr Ficlets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914202
Comments: 6
Kudos: 72





	surely

**Author's Note:**

> I crossed a clearing yesterday  
> Somewhere that I recognised  
> Counted all the paths along the way  
> Further than i've been before  
> Touched your hand but nothing more  
> No one's ever looked at me that way

It takes some time for the dust to settle and longer for Nile to feel like she can breathe again. That takes a flight to Barbados and eight months of fumbling through living alone. She tells all of them not to contact her unless it’s an emergency, that she can look after herself (which is true even without Copley keeping an eye out for her). All of them except one. 

As it stands she has an entire drawer-full of correspondence, each letter penned in a careful hand and addressed from Paris. The paper is thicker than she’s used to and the ink seems to be from a fountain pen. It amuses her a little, how old fashioned it feels, each time she picks up a letter from her mailbox and then she is hit with the sobering thought that one day she’s going to be like that too. A living relic, carrying pieces of the past with her far far into the future. 

Nile is aware enough to know that it means something. It should mean something. That she’s letting Booker walk her through the earliest days of her immortality. That’s she’s chosen to shut everyone else out except him, even if it’s just for a little while. And what’s even more significant is that most of the time it doesn’t feel like enough. There are days where she itches to pick up the phone, to hear his dry sarcasm in all its fullness rather than read it. When she visits the Gallery of Caribbean Art, it’s his opinion she wants first. It should feel transgressive somehow, but instead it just feels right. They can be two lost people together. 

One day she’ll call him and he’ll answer. One day she’ll go to meet him. It might not be this year or even this decade. It doesn’t really matter because they’re both making their way. Surely.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading this self indulgent incoherent nonsense <33 you can check me out on tumblr @spectral-seirios


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